1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to decking systems in which the deck height can be adjusted and more particularly to such a system for use in supporting freight in a vehicle compartment.
2. Description of the Related Art
In vehicles employed for handling freight such as trucks, aircraft and railroad cars, it is often desirable to provide beams, decks, or shelves to support various cargo items. In order to facilitate loading and unloading of such cargo, it is desirable that such cargo support systems be versatile in their positioning and readily relocated from the cargo handling area to a stowage location if need be. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,137, inventor: Richard H. Jensen, issued Aug. 16, 1994 and assigned to Ancra International, the assignee of the present application, a decking system is described which employs paired beams for supporting a shelf or for directly supporting cargo containers. In this system, the height of the deck can be raised or lowered by means of latching members which engage apertures formed in opposing vertically support tracks. The device of the present invention is an improvement over this prior art decking system in that it provides dual latching fingers on its guide shoe lock keys which engage a pair of apertures in the tracks, thus distributing the load and providing greater strength. A preferred embodiment of the present system also employs a standard "aircraft" track which has a low profile and is of higher strength and is less prone to fatigue failure. In addition, the present system is of more economical construction than that of the prior art.